


the wild youth

by towine (snippetcee)



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: F/F, F/M, Kissing, Lots of kissing, M/M, Spin the Bottle, Team Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-02
Updated: 2013-09-02
Packaged: 2017-12-25 10:47:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/952165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snippetcee/pseuds/towine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren sputtered, “You too, Armin? Why?”</p><p>He shrugged. “It’s just a game, Eren. And, well…”</p><p>Armin took a look at the others - poking fun at each other, laughing, grinning. His friends. “These days we don’t really get a lot of time for games.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	the wild youth

**Author's Note:**

> for [this prompt](http://towine.tumblr.com/post/59347224572/dont-mind-at-all-i-dont-have-much-experience) on tumblr. thanks for reading!

"This is stupid, why are we doing this-”

“Shut up, Yeager. I mean damn, live a little.”

“We’ve got a full day of maneuver gear practice tomorrow. It’s like midnight right now, shouldn’t we, I don’t know, _sleep_?”

“For once, we’ve got time without Shadis breathing down our necks; might as well make the most of it. And you don’t have to play if you don’t want to. Go the fuck to sleep, actually, spare us your whining.”

Eren clenched a fist, ready to get up and throw it at Jean’s face, but Armin laid a hand on his shoulder, squeezing it gently. Eren huffed and scooted closer to him.

It was deep into the night, and moonlight barely managed to snake through gaps in the thick tree branches high above them. Shadis had taken the trainees out into the forest earlier that day for a refresher on wilderness survival as well as some 3DMG practice. After camp was set up, Shadis barked at them to be up at 0500 hours before marching off to wherever the hell his tent was. He placed it away from the rest of the trainees, muttering something about not wanting to, “deal with a bunch of horny little shits.”

Well, all the better for them, at least in Jean’s opinion.

They were all seated in a circle on the ground with the campfire a small distance away, illuminating their faces and the empty glass bottle situated in the center of them.

Spin the bottle.

Eren thought it was dumb, but some of the other trainees didn’t seem to think so. Reiner had grinned and persuaded a tentative Bertolt and an impassive Annie into playing, and Connie eagerly joined the circle after Jean explained the rules. Sasha followed afterwards and Krista thought it sounded fun, though Ymir was reluctant to let people kiss her little Krista. And of course, Marco always went along with Jean’s ideas.

Eren fully intended to just go to sleep and not take any part in it, but then Armin had taken a seat next to Sasha.

Eren sputtered, “You too, Armin? Why?”

He shrugged. “It’s just a game, Eren. And, well…”

Armin took a look at the others - poking fun at each other, laughing, grinning. His friends. “These days we don’t really get a lot of time for games.”

So Eren slowly and somewhat grudgingly sat next to him. With Eren came Mikasa, and that was how it began.

-

“Who’s gonna spin it first?”

The circle went quiet.

Reiner looked at his comrades, an eyebrow raised. Shrugging, he said, “Alright, if no one else will…”

He reached out and spun the bottle with a twist of his wrist.

They held their breaths in anticipation, watching the bottle spin and spin before it finally slowed, pointing towards…

“Aw what the fuck man, seriously?”

Jean let out a bark of laughter and everyone else stifled snickers.

Reiner smirked and beckoned with one hand. “Well come on, then.”

Connie was bright red as he and Reiner got up and stepped towards each other. He stood looking up at the taller blond’s face ( _almost as stupidly tall as Bertolt_ , he thought) before Reiner leaned down and pressed their lips together.

Connie only expected a quick, chaste kiss, but then Reiner grasped the back of his neck and pressed their mouths more firmly together, moving his lips against Connie’s and stealing his breath.

Sasha and Ymir catcalled approvingly. Jean was laughing so hard he had to lean on Marco’s shoulder. Armin was blushing and Eren looked a little like he was choking.

When they finally separated, Connie was even redder than he was before. Reiner just looked smug as he sat back on the ground.

“First kiss of the night, thought I’d make it a good one,” he said simply.

Everyone turned to look at Connie, who seemed to be in a dazed stupor. He looked thoughtful for a moment, then shrugged. “Not bad,” he said, nodding.

“Spin the fucking bottle already,” Jean drawled, wiping tears that had gathered at the corners of his eyes.

Connie reached for the bottle and spun it.

When the spinning stopped, the bottle was pointing to Mikasa.

Connie tried not to look too eager as she stood and moved towards him. Disappointingly, she only gave him a quick peck on the lips, but still - as he went back to his seat, Connie threw a smirk at Jean, who was seething in jealousy.

Mikasa spun the bottle, and it landed on Annie.

That had everyone straightening up, looking interested.

“Tch.” Annie rolled her eyes at them as she made to stand in front of Mikasa.

They regarded each other for a moment, silent. The others sat with bated breaths.

Annie and Mikasa must come to some sort of agreement in that moment of locked eye contact, because suddenly they were reaching for each other, moving forward, their mouths meeting halfway. Hands buried themselves in each others’ hair and their lips were touching and separating and touching again as everyone else watched in stunned (enraptured) silence.

When they pulled away, Annie and Mikasa were the only ones who weren’t flushed.

And Eren too, who gaped at Mikasa as she returned to her place beside him.

There were many kisses after that - Annie had to kiss a flustered Marco, who became even more flustered when his bottle spin ended with a grinning kiss from Ymir. Ymir then locked lips with Bertolt who proceeded to sweat in distress, to the surprise of no one.

One of the funnier moments of the night was when Bertolt had to kiss Krista, a whole foot and a half shorter than him. The petite blonde laughed good-naturedly as Bertolt fretted nervously in front of her before she balanced on her toes and craned her neck, doing her best to meet Bertolt in a brief press of lips.

When Bertolt, blushing, sat back down, Reiner patted him on the back and laughed, “Half the people here are jealous of you, Bertl, don’t sweat it.”

“Was that supposed to be a joke?”

Krista spun the bottle and was immediately embraced by an enthusiastic Sasha, who leapt the moment the bottle stopped in front of her. She kissed her little food goddess until Ymir called out, “Oi, that’s enough now.”

By that point, most of the trainees were loose-limbed and in good spirits: leaning against one another, laughing and whistling as kisses were shared. Comrades in arms but above all, friends.

Sasha pouted at Ymir as she reached down to spin the bottle, and even Eren couldn’t help but snort in amusement at the look on her face.

He began to understand how Armin felt, why he wanted to participate in what Eren thought was just a stupid game. They lived in a world where children were baptized in blood and tears and risen as soldiers, as weapons. People fought, people survived - but rarely ever did people _live_.

Being able to laugh with his friends was something Eren never realized he needed. And taking the time to share kisses - whether platonic or romantic or in the nature of a game - brought a sense of freedom, lightness, unfettered _youth_ that was all too rare these days.

Eren thought the game wasn’t such a bad idea anymore (though he was definitely not going to tell Jean that).

It was at this moment that the bottle stopped and pointed to Armin.

Sasha was bouncing on her feet and grinning as a blushing Armin got up to stand in front of her, and Eren felt a weird _something_ in his chest.

That something squeezed and made his breathing hitch when he watched Sasha pull Armin’s face towards hers and kiss him with an exaggerated smacking sound, like a mother kissing her child. Sasha giggled as she sat back down.

As Armin reached to spin the bottle, Eren couldn’t help but think to himself that he would have kissed Armin differently. Softer, definitely, and longer - lingering until he felt Armin kiss back and maybe he’d swipe his tongue against the other’s lips and-

Wait. _Shit_ , Eren thought.

Then he realized that the bottle was pointing to him, and Armin - along with the rest of their friends - was looking at him expectantly.

“Go on, Eren!”

“It’s your turn!”

They were all sniggering, and that something in Eren’s chest had loosened its hold just enough to let his heart beat frantically against his ribcage.

Mikasa nudged him with her elbow, and he slowly stood and moved towards Armin, his face turning redder and hotter.

Standing in front of each other, they were quiet for a moment. Eren knew he must have looked really embarrassed because Armin whispered to him, “You really don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”

“Uh, yes he fucking does,” Jean said, and Eren could have kicked him.

But then Connie chimed in, “We all did it, it’s no big deal, dude.”

 _Except it really is_ , Eren thought frantically, because this was his best friend whom he’s been having slightly more than friendly thoughts about; because Armin looked really nice with his face flushed red and glowing with the light of the campfire; because Armin gave him a way out of this that Eren probably wouldn’t take because he really actually did want to kiss him.

 _I want to kiss him_ , he realized.

Armin looked like he was about to speak again, to tell Eren that he wasn’t forcing him to do anything - but before he could, Eren reached up and cradled Armin’s face in both hands, looking at him, just looking, before moving closer and kissing him.

Armin’s mouth opened slightly in surprise and Eren breathed him in, sliding their lips against each other, wondering if Armin’s heart was beating as rapidly as his own.

He remembered the way everyone whistled or cheered or laughed whenever the others kissed, but Eren didn’t hear anything beyond the white noise in his head, his pulse thundering in his ears, his breathing harsher and more uneven than Armin’s gentle exhales.

_This… is really, really nice._

Eren thought he should probably say something more profound, but it was what it was, and Armin had brought his arms up to wrap around Eren’s waist and Eren found it harder to think after that, anyway.

Eren lightly nipped Armin’s lower lip, savoring the hitched sound that elicited, before pulling away, their faces inches from each other, breaths still intermingling.

He opened his eyes, not realizing that they had closed in the first place.

Everyone was grinning at them, except Jean who was rolling his eyes. Ymir and Connie were making loud kissing noises in their direction and Eren could’ve sworn Sasha’s eyes had hearts in them. Mikasa just looked amused.

Armin let go of Eren’s waist before they finally stepped away from each other, a shyly pleased look on his face, and it took all of Eren’s tenuous self-restraint to keep himself from kissing Armin again, right there.

Besides, something in Armin’s blue eyes held a promise of _later_ with a warm, affectionate glow that made a smile spread on Eren’s face.

“Man, and we say Franz and Hannah are the lovebirds.”

The smile turned into a scowl at the sound of Jean’s voice, but Reiner laughed and so did Connie and Eren began to feel embarrassment creep up his neck.

“Spin the bottle, Eren!” Sasha said.

“Oh, quit laughing,” Eren grumbled to the rest of them as he spun the bottle. The circle quieted a bit -

\- only to erupt in raucous laughter when the bottle stopped in front of Jean.

“Oh _h_ _ell_ no!” Jean was scrambling to his feet, trying to escape, but Reiner caught him by the arms and held him fast. “Agh! Let me go-”

His voice was almost a squeak and Eren would have laughed if he wasn’t also trying to run away, only to have Connie and Ymir block his path.

“Come on, we all did it!”

“You’ve been bickering all night - time to kiss and make up!”

“Oh _fuck all of you_ , you assholes-”

Eren realized they really weren’t going to let them out of this, so he sighed and pressed his lips against Jean’s in the quickest, _quickest_ kiss he could manage.

They pulled away immediately, hacking and wiping their mouths while everyone else cheered and patted them on the backs.

“This game is over,” Jean croaked, and for once Eren agreed with him.

-

As they entered their shared tent, Eren lightly, almost tentatively, grasped Armin’s hand.

Armin turned to look at him.

“Hey, um.” Eren found the words sticking in his throat. “I… I really like you, Armin. And... I probably have for a while now. So.” Eren was blushing harder than he ever had been during their game outside. He looked down at Armin’s feet rather than his face.

He felt fingers under his chin tilting his face upwards so he could meet blue eyes. Armin was smiling.

“I really like you, too.”

Then he was kissing Eren and Eren was kissing him back and in the privacy of their tent, without the watchful eyes of their comrades, he drank in every breathy whine and quiet sigh that left Armin’s lips.

That is, until Armin said, “We really do need to go to sleep, though - it’s late.”

“Mmhmm.”

“Eren!” Armin laughed as Eren peppered kisses down his neck. “Sleep. Now.”

Eren moaned reluctantly and Armin laughed at him again.

They quickly changed into their sleeping clothes before lying on their adjacent bedrolls, facing each other. Eren draped his arm over Armin’s waist and Armin shuffled closer to him.

“Goodnight,” he whispered.

“Well, it’s really the morning now, I guess.” Eren wanted to kick himself.

Armin just let out an amused breath and said, “Good morning, then.”

“Y-yeah. Good morning.”

They slept.

-

Sure enough, Eren was exhausted the following day along with most of the other trainees. Shadis noticed, too, and they were punished with an extra long lecture and shrill screaming in their ears during their morning exercises.

Afterwards, as they tiredly strapped on the harnesses for their 3DMGs, Eren and Armin exchanged glances, then smiles, then a quick, soft kiss.

Despite his exhaustion, Eren couldn’t bring himself to regret anything.

They hooked on their gear and, together, they flew.


End file.
